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I’m down in Melbourne again at the moment and I’ve made it to Funfields for the opening day of Lava Lagoon and the Cyber Drift Bumper Cars. The area is very nicely presented and will look even better after the trees and plants grow (I believe there is more theming to be added later on too). There are cabanas on the island and alongside sections of the river that can be hired out as well as a large “beach” area with free seating (on a first come, first served basis). Cyber Drift Bumper Cars really impressed me. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of theming, but what the park delivered definitely exceeded my expectations. It may not come across the best in these photos, but the entire roof is pixel mapped and the 3D signs and neon lights around the outside of the arena are all synchronised to create a pretty neat light show during the ride. All in all, these are definitely both nice additions to the park.

G’day folks - long time no see! As some of you may know I’m the deputy editor of First Drop, the print magazine of the European Coaster Club. Our upcoming issue (going to print in the next week or two) will have a feature on Jungle Rush in it. We’re looking for more action photos to include - basically those showing moving trains full of happy people. They need to be at print resolution (so off a camera ideally, though a recent smartphone also works if you can download the high resolution originals). If we use your picture(s) we’ll happy give you a membership of our club. The most useful bit of this for those living down under is six issues of our magazine by post, though you’ll also get access to our ECC Live series where we chat with people in the industry on Zoom. Recent participants include Neil Dwyer from Six Flags Qiddiya, and Eric Bertch from Lost Island. Shout if you can help, either here or by email to richard@coaster.club. Many thanks!

These fucking turnstiles have gone full circle. Its almost Scooby Doo Eyes level.

Didn't eat at Jane's today as Christmas is already expensive enough, but we did have a look around which staff were nice enough to allow. I think the only bathrooms in the land are in there so I guess they'll let people come in for that if needed which is part of the reason we went inside anyway. Theming again, is just phenomenal. All the staff being dressed up, theming elements every inch of the place. Really good size, feels like more tables than when it was Billabong but yet doesn't look crowded either The bathrooms were really nice and even themed Greg was serving guests, bringing out their food and chatting to them. Huge respect to him and his team actually getting out there and making a difference directly Really enjoyable music and general vibe to the entire place Can't wait to actually sit down and try the food, it looked pretty good and decently sized from what I saw people getting

Greg has been working tirelessly to turn DW around for 5-6ish years… and it’s done it by leading from the forefront. The man deserves some reward from his efforts via ticket sales, market share and share price *he’s

This is an example of what a good boss looks like. Some of us might have worked jobs where your crappy manager/owner will do nothing and sit at his desk and not interact with anyone as opposed to acting in a front facing role towards customers when you can. Hopefully the reception of the two areas from general audiences after Boxing Day is similar to the observations on here and causes the tide to change. I mean not having aircon or fans in parts of queues for rides in Oz should do that by itself, if movie world doesn’t change that ASAP they are kidding themselves. It’s time Greg and his team’s efforts in turning dreamworld around get rewarded

Tidbit about this from opening day: The drivers seat itself can now be slid forwards so that kids can reach the pedal.

Single rider was open, it is quite far into the queue though just before the actual loading station. Same area you chose to start forward or backward.

So time to share my impressions Munchkinland/Forecourt the entrance photo op statues look great. Little close to the brake run for SE imo, but I get they working with limited space so will ignore it. The walkway down to the forecourt is great, the rainbow effect is great and the transitional music change is really good. The theming in the forecourt is great, and in the 50mins we were there there was photo op with Wicked Witch, a Dorothy performance, and a photo op with Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion. All great, however I’d like to see how regular this becomes or even if it still exists in off peak Emerald City Lighting and design is decent. They’ll want to keep those wall projections functional (unlike other projections in the park) or it will be bland and boring. The wizard projection is quite good, though would have been fantastic to have it have more random or lengthy dialogue sets as it does get a little tedious being so short and just on repeat. Flight of the Wicked Witch The internal queue is fantastic with the room of Poppies and then the enchanted forest. You feel immersed in the story, and even my son said “wow this is like a Japan-level queue” and then boom - you walk downstairs and you are in an outdoor cattle run with no shade, and ridiculous slow ops and burning to a crisp in the sun. I can’t overstate how much the experience is wrecked by this. The immersion is gone and you just want to get it over with. You enter the castle for the final part of the queue which does look good, but it’s not air conned so there is no respite from the baking you’ve just had. They only let 1-2 groups into the castle at the time. The ops just seem entirely haphazard. The 2 cycles where I could visually see what was happening has 4-5min waits between guest disembarking and next guests being let onto the platform simply because the sorter is also the harness checker and they didn’t start sorting until the previous ride disembarked. The entrance to the ride gates is in such a close proximity to the entrance, they have to fill gates 4/5 which are directly in front of the entrance last as you wouldn’t get people past them otherwise. the ride itself is punchy and smooth, and a much better experience than similar coasters I have been on, so gets a big tick on that. There is a short jolty break mid final turn prior to the full break run which is a little strange in terms of forces, and the ride photo for mine is far too late in the ride, but aside from that no complaints. Kansas Twisters I could probably copy the same as the previous tbh.. the starting internal queue is great, immersive and fun. Then you are outside. In the sun. The grouper, who is deciding whether you get in the yellow or the orange train queue, had absolutely no concept of counting. We were told to join the orange train queue, which is on the opposite side of the station so you have to head up and over the track inside the barn. After a couple of cycle, it was blatantly apparent he couldn’t count as we were probably 3-4 cycles from getting on the orange train, and there was only 6 people waiting for the yellow. Cue us excusing ourselves back past another 10 plus people and jumping the rail to join the yellow train queue. Did I mention it was hot? And the barn had no air con or fans? Who designed this place? the ride itself is fun on the forwards cycle, but to be honest I found the return journey just too slow to really consider re-riding again. You walk off to look at chain link fencing and the 30 year old back of house offices. We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto… i also didn’t mention that there was no announcements over the speakers on either ride, no “enjoy the ride” or “you’re about to take flight on blah blah”. The only thing said by staff was yelling “don’t touch the seatbelt, we will do it up. Don’t touch the seat belt” on FOTWW. overall if they spent $100m they need their better people making the financial decisions for the park. Whilst it’s clear nothing is going to change short term, they need to drop some money into this thing before next summer to at a minimum have some shade sails over the queue line, and put some air con or fans into the internal queues. Then they need to sort out their ops. promises so much, but just misses the high mark it set for itself unfortunately. It’s not a fail by any stretch, but if it’s a 2 horse race between Oz and Rivertown - DW has is won by the length of the straight